Riding Instruction and Training in Schuylkill County and the surrounding area

Meet Jess

Jess with Karona at Dressage at Devon, 2011

Jessica (Stemmler) Stein is the person behind the Stemmler Stein Equine, LLC business base, and its been a long journey to get where she is today. When Jess was just 13 years old, she went to a horse camp with a friend. They had a blast, but she had to go home early that week to attend her grandfather’s funeral. Camp and her Pappy’s death didn’t come without a realization though…when she had been around the horses, there had been some kind of peace. Now, thrown into a world devoid of horses but full of sadness and stress, what was there? Jess returned to camp the following year. Riding lessons ensued in the months after, and for her fifteenth birthday, Jess got her first horse.

Might Goer Blaze quickly became Jess’ best friend, and she’ll tell you he’s the one that got her through her teenage years. Together they rode in 4-H shows, showed a bit on the Appaloosa circuit, and learned Dressage under the direction of Cheryl Ash. As time came to decide “what to do” with her life, the only thing Jess could think of was to work with horses. Despite the warnings of family, friends, and instructors that “you’ll never make any money”, she enrolled at the University of Findlay, where she would graduate with degrees in Equine Business Management, English, and Equestrian Studies in 2010.

Jess in lesson at Findlay with her 2 year old project horse

Jess immediately started Stemmler Equine and began building a clientele. Rider by rider and horse by horse, soon Jess was living the dream and doing what she loved for a living. In 2011, with the uncertainties at former Pleasant Valley Ranch, Jess and her clients bounced around to as many as five different farms. Finally, when everything settled in January 2012, SE was left with a place to call home in the very facilities it started. Using her experience from farms all over our area and Ohio, Jess boarded, trained, and taught at Open Gate Ranch.

During the Summer of 2012 Stemmler Equine transformed into what is now Stemmler Stein Equine, LLC. It was a change necessitated by both the rapid growth of the business and by Jess’ upcoming marriage to Jake Stein of Orwigsburg. They were married October 14, 2012 and officially put the “Stein” in to the LLC name. Every now and then you’ll see Jake helping out at the farm…when he’s not busy helping with the fruit farm he co-owns off of Rt 443.

With changes at Open Gate in early 2014, the business was again shifting through several facilities, but clients still come to Jess with a variety of equine requests. In January 2016, Jess and Jake officially opened their own farm at 510 Orchard Ln, Orwigsburg. The farm now boasts a horse barn and indoor riding ring along with several paddocks and hack trails.

Is achieving that dream of making a living off of horses enough? No. Jess still has a pile of goals of her own, and works each day to get closer to them. Each students and each horse that she has in training is a product that she tries to make the best she can. As she watches each student improve, she becomes a better and better instructor. Students meet goals and set higher ones. Jess herself meets goals and sets higher ones.

Jess riding Karona in one of the final tests needed for her USDF bronze medal, which she received in 2013.